


There's No Delete Button In Baking

by KittyInATopHat



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Gilfoyle bakes, Gilfoyle talks about his childhood, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Richard can't bake because Richard, chocolate cake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 12:01:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4434710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyInATopHat/pseuds/KittyInATopHat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard wants to bake a cake for Jared's birthday. Gilfoyle assists. </p><p>(May turn into a multichapter fic with more baking and eventual Dinesh/Gilfoyle)</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's No Delete Button In Baking

**Author's Note:**

> I have I'm thinking about turning this into a short series, eventually leading to some Dinesh/Gilfoyle lovin'. I'm not sure yet, we'll see what happens!
> 
> Also just as a reference Le Creuset is super expensive/really high quality cookware. They have pots that come in blue & I want one SO bad. :(

Richard stares at the open laptop on the counter in front of him. His eyes scan the recipe again, then the ingredients he’s laid out.

“Okay...let’s go over this one more time”. He’s done this at least a dozen already. “4 eggs...1 cup sugar...1 teaspoon baking soda. It’s a teaspoon right? Or was it a tablespoon?...shit”. He frowns and covers his face with his hands.

“I don’t think I can do this”, he groans. Rewriting their entire compression algorithm was nothing compared to trying to bake a cake. In fact, he was pretty sure he’d rather pick through coding errors with “The Carver” again than measure out ingredients and preheat ovens. But Jared’s birthday was tomorrow and, for the first time in awhile, Richard needed a gift for his significant other. A really thoughtful, good gift that would show just how much Richard cared about him. Richard took a deep breath. If he could do this for anyone, he could do it for Jared.

He reached across the counter and grabbed a mixing bowl. He re-re-reread the first instruction in the recipe.

“Let’s get this over with”, he muttered.

\-----------------------------------

Gilfoyle was sitting in his room when he heard the fire alarm go off in the kitchen. The noise startles him so bad he nearly falls out of his computer chair. He scrambles to the door of his room and throws it open. He grabs the fire extinguisher from the hallway closet before rushing in the direction of the kitchen.

“I don’t know which one of you fuckheads set off the fire alarm, but I--”, he stops muttering as he rounds the corner to find Richard standing in front of the oven. He’s sporting oven mitts and an apron and holds a smoking cake. His eyes are wide as he stares at Gilfoyle.

“Gilfoyle...hi”, he practically squeaks. Gilfoyle’s attention shifts to the kitchen, which he’s now noticed is in absolute chaos: the counter is covered in spilled milk, eggshells riddle the sink and there’s flour on the walls and surfaces and maybe even the ceiling too. Richard's apron and forearms are covered in chocolate.

“What exactly are you doing?”, Gilfoyle asks, gesturing to the cake pan in his mitted hands.

“I...I’m baking for someone”, he replies. “For their birthday”. Gilfoyle makes the connection.

“It’s for Jared”, he says. Richard nods. Gilfoyle glances down at the cake, which is charred and smoking, yet still manages to look undercooked in the middle. "Please don't tell me you're actually going to give that to him". Richard shakes his head.

“Actually I wasn’t really sure what to get him at all. So I thought maybe baking something would be a good idea”, he says sheepishly. “But I have no idea what I’m doing, clearly”.

But Gilfoyle did.

He sighs as he looks around the kitchen, at the cake, and back at Richard, who looks ready to give up. He frowns as guilt starts to wash over him.

“What are you trying to make?”, he asks.

“German chocolate cake”, Richard replies. Figures.

“I’ll be right back”, Gilfoyle says, turning around and walking back to his room. “Don’t touch anything”.

A few minutes later he reenters the kitchen. Gilfoyle is wearing a black apron with a large, red pentagram printed in the center. He’s carrying a matching pair of red oven mitts, a Le Crueuset cake pan, and a small note card. Richard does a double take to make sure he’s staring at the right person.

“This is my grandmother’s recipe for German Chocolate Cake”, he says, handing Richard the note card. Richard gaps at Gilfoyle as he takes the card from him.

“Gilfoyle, don’t actually tell me expect me to believe that you know how to--”.

“Bake?”, Gilfoyle interrupts. “Actually I do”. He fiddles with the heating knob on the oven and turns toward the disheveled ingredients lying on the counter. He grabs two bowls, rinses them out, and hands them to Richard. “Can I trust you to crack some eggs for me?”.

“I think so”, Richard says, taking the bowl.

“Okay, you’ll need to separate the whites and the yolks, do you know how to do that?”

“Yes”.

Richard, as Gilfoyle learned several minutes later, did not know how to do that. He found Richard trying to scoop the yolks out of the whites and into the separate bowl. 

“Have you just spent your whole life eating ramen and hot pockets?”, Gilfoyle grumbles as he rinses the bowls again and shoos Richard out of the way to crack the eggs himself.

“I make mac and cheese too”, Richard protests. “Gilfoyle, come on, I’m not completely useless. Let me help”.

“I’m not sure if I want to, you might burn the fucking house down”, Gilfoyle says. Richard watches as he taps each egg on the side of the bowl, separates them and neatly drops the yolks and the whites into their designated bowls. He manages to do it in several fluid motions, never unsure of his actions.

“Wow, you’re really good”, he says.

“Before I had hardware, I had baking. Hold these”. He hands both the bowls to Richard before reaching for the other ingredients. “My grandmother always told me that any self respecting man learns how to bake”. Richard notices that Gilfoyle is smiling slightly.

“Is that who taught you?”, he asks quietly, watching Gilfoyle measure out two cups of cake flour. He pours the cups into a mixing bowl, then adds two cups of sugar and a ½ teaspoon of salt on top.

“Yes”, he replies, whisking the dry ingredients gently. “Sometimes it was the only way she could calm me down after my mother had one of her episodes”. Richard froze. The smile faded from Gilfoyle’s face. The Incubator had learned quickly that Gilfoyle never spoke about his family, especially not his mother. Richard was unsure of how to approach the situation.

"She used to take me in for a few weeks while my mom tried to get sober. And then when my mom would fall off the wagon and freak out again, I'd be back at her place", he continued. "It's all kind of a blur, but I guess that's when I started baking". He reaches under the counter for another bowl. After setting it on the counter, he places a stick of butter and two cups of sugar inside and picks up the hand mixer.

Silence settles between the two as Gilfoyle beats the butter and sugar.

“Get a half cup of water and heat it up with an ounce of chocolate”. It takes Richard a moment to register that Gilfoyle is speaking to him. He takes a small sauce pan off the stove and measures out the water, then he puts it back and turns on the burner. He breaks four squares off a bar of German baking chocolate and throws them in the pot. Only three of them make it, the fourth clatters into the burner and melts. Richard lets out a defeated groan, as Gilfoyle rolls his eyes and places another square in the pot.

\-----------------------------------

When Jared returns home later that night, he finds a beautifully iced German chocolate cake waiting for him on the counter. “Happy Birthday Jared” is scrawled along the top of the cake in red icing, with a small heart drawn underneath.

“Hey you, happy early birthday”, Richard smiles at him as he walks into the kitchen to greet him. Jared beams when he sees Richard.

“Oh, Richard, thank you so much. Baking this was incredibly thoughtful of you”. He places a soft kiss on Richard’s lips.

“Yeah, well. I can’t really say that I made it”, Richard admits. “I had some help. A lot of help, actually”.

“From who?”, Jared asks.

“It’s...sort of a complicated”.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, have a lovely day! (:


End file.
